Drugmaker Eli Lilly to start publishing list prices of drugs

Drugmaker Eli Lilly to start publishing list prices of drugs

Drugmaker Eli Lilly on Tuesday began posting price information online for drugs it advertises on TV.

The company began running TV ads for Trulicity, a popular diabetes drug, which don’t give price info but direct viewers to a new website or a toll-free telephone number where they can learn about the list price, average out-of-pocket costs and patient assistance programs.

The company set a deadline by the end of February to do the same for the other medicines advertised on TV.

Lilly said it is the first company to adopt the revised marketing principles adopted by the industry group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) in October.

Under those principles, every television ad from a PhRMA member that mentions a prescription drug by name will include a voiceover or text telling patients to go to a company-sponsored website where they can find pricing information.

“We recognize that the U.S. health care system has asked Americans to pay more out-of-pocket—including for prescription medicines. So people need new tools to help them,” Lilly said in a statement.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who is working to implement President Trump’s efforts to lower drug prices, was previously an executive at the company.

The Trump administration wants to require companies to disclose list prices in direct-to-consumer advertising, but PhRMA has said putting list prices directly into advertisements is misleading and doesn’t give patients the context they need to make informed decisions.